Astute readers will notice that I haven’t posted a mix since March. I’ve been… busy? I moved continents (which required giving up freelancing music writing – so, blogging’s appeal is somewhat renewed), broke my spleen and tried to make some music of my own. Time to get back to other peoples’. Expect more regular updates again, starting with this simple little thing I threw together and continuing with my best albums of the year roundup as soon as I can relisten to about 60 albums…

I wish that the URL on FACT Magazine’s obituary for Mark Fisher were literally true – “mark-fisher-k-punk-capitalist-realism-has-died” – rather than what has actually happened. Capitalist Realism is alive, and Mark Fisher a.k.a. k-punk is dead. I didn’t know him, but his writing shaped me as much as any music, and I believe it will go on because there’s so much I haven’t delved into yet. My unread copy of Ghosts Of My Life, purchased with glee the moment I saw it at the ICA bookshop — until that moment, I didn’t know it existed — hides in my boxes of books, waiting for my new home, wherever that will be. Not much of an excuse. And I’ve ordered his new collection, The Weird and the Eerie, and you should too. Even when k-punk was in full swing, I didn’t always read it with the eyes I have now, being more focused on finding the latest and greatest dubplates than in understanding the world; I’ve gone back to it so many times since then, and every time I’m filled with a combination of self-loathing (how did I not appreciate this?) and awe.

One thing I did devour in its moment was Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, a book as Herculean in its upending of the post-Fukuyama consensus as it is short. Not only did it change my view of the world, it also cracked open the door leading to another, better way of organizing human endeavour than the one we currently cling to. Fisher didn’t have the answers necessarily, but diagnosing the problem was more than enough of a contribution. He knew that there was something ruthlessly anti-human about the ruling ideology, and located it in the prevailing attitudes toward mental health. Another gift he bestowed was indirectly pushing me towards thinkers like Lacan, and while my understanding is still fragmented and incomplete, it was Fisher who, more than anyone else I’ve read, put his finger on the way mental health and the state are related, and shouted with arresting urgency about the problem we didn’t know we had.

I’ve always had the spirit of those early ’00s times in mind when compiling the mixes I post on this blog; in some ways I’ve been making them for Fisher, Simon Reynolds, Martin Clark, Dave Stelfox et al, an imagined audience of real heads who led me to this music in the first place. So I’m dedicating this mix to Mark Fisher, and hoping that he know how much of an impact he really had on his students – in learning settings both formal and not.

In my new digs I was avoiding making mixes, because I don’t have proper speakers yet. Necessity being the mother of invention, I mixed this on the speakers in the TV, and damned if it didn’t come out not half bad. It helps that these tunes needed to be mixed, like money burning a hole in your pocket. Lot of great producers like Pearson Sound and Distal putting stuff out on their own labels, which is interesting, though everyone from Keysound to Tempa are still bringing that fire. And don’t sleep on Nomine – I didn’t always love his stuff but this one is a corker. Enjoy!

These are grim times for dance — oh hell, for everyone. I am struggling with a few relatively minor things myself, but making this mix was unadulterated fun. I hope you enjoy listening to it. NB I make no apologies for back-to-back tracks from Inna Nice Up Fashion!, which you should go get right now. The ragga jungle revival starts here!

A lousy day for the UK is not quite what I had envisioned for this UK-heavy mix — if anything I was hoping it would serve as a post-Remain-vote tribute to the cultural benefits of immigration, since pretty much none of the music I promote these days on the blog would exist without it. But so it goes, as my heart goes out to Britons who may be feeling less loved by their country today. Anyways that’s a lot of nonsense to pile onto what is supposed to be a party-ready mix of bass heavy tracks, so let’s get into the weekend — never mind the Brexit hangover.